Electric knife sharpener

ABSTRACT

An electric knife sharpener includes an accommodating unit including a base and an upper cover with an opening slot, a driving unit fixed on the base and including a motor and an eccentric wheel, a linkage unit including a linkage mechanism and an upper fixing seat with two limiting rods thereof pivotally connected to an upper part of the upper fixing seat in a parallel manner, and a grinding unit. The linkage unit has a guide groove located in a pivot end thereof and coupled to two guiding blocks in a through hole of the upper fixing seat. When the linkage mechanism is drivable by the eccentric wheel to move up and down alternatively. The grinding unit includes two sharpening components. One end of each sharpening component is pivotally connected in a groove of the linkage mechanism, so that the two sharpening components form a cross arrangement and opposite openings are formed between the two sharpening components to cross a sharpening accommodating space.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/545,473, filed on Dec. 8, 2021 and entitled “ELECTRIC KNIFE SHARPENER”.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a cutting tool grinding device, especially an electric knife sharpener.

2. Description of the Related Art

Taiwan Patent M574952 discloses an electric knife sharpener. Each sharpening component of this electric sharpener has a pivot hole, and two sharpening components are used as a group, and each pair of sharpening components is pivotally connected to the upper end of a linkage unit. Since there is a stop in the middle of the knife groove, because the two sharpening components are pivotally connected to the same pivot point, the sharpening components will form a separation and clamping action when it is actuated, so it can only be ground on one side. This method is a clip-on method. The blade of the knife ground by this method is not sharp and the appearance is not beautiful. Since the knife can only be sharpened on one side, it often takes a lot of time to trim and grind both sides of the blade. Therefore, the lack of conventional electric knife sharpeners still needs to be improved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is the main object of the present invention to provide an electric knife sharpener, wherein the sharpening components of the grinding unit and the linkage unit of the electric knife sharpener can provide a better displacement angle grinding effect.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention proposes an electric knife sharpener, which comprises an accommodating unit, a driving unit, a linkage unit, and a grinding unit. The accommodating unit comprises an upper cover and a base. The upper cover has an opening slot. The driving unit comprises a motor and an eccentric wheel. The driving unit is fixed on the base. The linkage unit comprises a linkage mechanism and an upper fixing seat. The upper fixing seat is set in the upper cover below the opening slot. The upper fixing seat comprises two limiting rods. Each limiting rod is set in the upper fixing seat. The linkage mechanism comprises a pivot end inserted in the upper fixing seat. The linkage mechanism is drivable by the eccentric wheel to reciprocate along an axial direction. The grinding unit comprises two sharpening components. Each sharpening component has an arc-shaped oblique hole. The limiting rods of the upper fixing seat are respectively inserted through the arc-shaped oblique holes. Each sharpening component has one end thereof pivotally connected to the pivot end of the linkage mechanism. The two sharpening components are pivoted at different pivot points, so that the two sharpening components form a cross arrangement and opposite openings are formed between the two sharpening components to cross a sharpening accommodating space. The two sharpening components are exposed in the opening slot of the upper cover.

With the cooperation of the driving unit, the linkage unit and the grinding unit, the cutting tool can be double-sided grinding at the same time, thereby making the blade sharp and beautiful, and shortening the time required for sharpening, thus achieving the object of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an oblique top elevational view of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, showing the state of the present invention installed in an accommodating unit.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, showing the internal state of the accommodating unit.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 1 .

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 1 .

FIG. 6 is similar to FIG. 5 , and is a schematic view of the action of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an exploded view of the second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 7 .

FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along line 9-9 of FIG. 7 .

FIG. 10 is similar to FIG. 9 , and is a schematic view of the action of the second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In order to describe in detail the technical features of the present invention, the following preferred embodiment is described in conjunction with the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1 to FIG. 6 , a first embodiment of the present invention discloses an electric knife sharpener 10. The electric knife sharpener 10 is mainly composed of an accommodating unit 11, a driving unit 21, a linkage unit 31, and a grinding unit 41.

The accommodating unit 11 comprises an upper cover 111 and a base 112, as shown in FIG. 3 , and the upper cover 111 has an opening slot 113.

The driving unit 21 comprises a motor 71 and an eccentric wheel 81, and the driving unit 21 is fixed on the base 112.

The linkage unit 31 comprises a linkage mechanism 61 and an upper fixing seat 51. The upper fixing seat 51 has two limiting rods 511, and each of the limiting rods 511 is pivotally connected to the upper part of the upper fixing seat 51 in parallel. The linkage mechanism 61 has a pivot end 611 and a driving end 612, and the pivot end 611 penetrates through a through hole 513 of the upper fixing seat 51. The through hole 513 is provided with two guiding blocks 512, and the two guiding blocks 512 are arranged on opposite sides of the through hole 513. The pivot end 611 has a guide groove 614, and both ends of the guide groove 614 are respectively connected with the guiding blocks 512. The linkage mechanism 61 of the linkage unit 31 can be driven by the eccentric wheel 81 to move upward and downward along an axial direction.

The grinding unit 41 comprises two sharpening components 412, and each of the sharpening components 412 is provided with an arc-shaped oblique hole 41. The two arc-shaped oblique holes 413 are bent and expanded in opposite directions. The two arc-shaped oblique holes 413 are limited to a limiting rod 511 in the linkage unit 31. One end of each sharpening component 412 is pivotally connected in a groove of the linkage mechanism 61. The two sharpening components 412 are pivotally connected to different pivot points, so that the two sharpening components 412 form a cross arrangement and opposite openings are formed between the two sharpening components to cross a sharpening accommodating space, and the two sharpening components 412 are exposed in the opening slot 113 of the upper cover 111.

The driving unit 21 is installed on the base 112, and the upper cover 111 and the upper fixing seat 51 are screwed together.

As shown in FIGS. 5 to 6 , one end of each sharpening component 412 is pivotally connected to the linkage mechanism 61, and the two limiting rods 511 of the linkage unit 31 are respectively passed through the two arc-shaped oblique holes 413 of the grinding unit 41. When the driving unit 21 drives the linkage unit 31 to act, the linkage mechanism 61 moves upwards to push the two sharpening components 412 of the grinding unit 41 upwards to expand along the shape of the arc-shaped oblique holes, and when the linkage mechanism 61 moves downward, it pushes the two sharpening components 412 downwards to condense in a reciprocating motion.

It can be seen from the above that the electric knife sharpener 10 of the present invention, compared with the previous clip-on technology, can indeed make the blade of the knife sharper and more beautiful, and shorten the time required for sharpening. In this way, the problems encountered by the aforementioned conventional technologies can be solved.

Referring to FIG. 7 to FIG. 10 , the electric knife sharpener of the second embodiment of the present invention composes an accommodating unit 11, a driving unit 21, a linkage unit 31, and a grinding unit 41.

The accommodating unit 11 comprises an upper cover 111 and a base 112, and the upper cover 111 has an opening slot 113.

The driving unit 21 comprises a motor 71 and an eccentric wheel 81.

The linkage unit 31 comprises a linkage mechanism 61. The linkage mechanism 61 has a pivot end 611 and a driving end 612. The driving end 612 is provided with a ring, and the eccentric wheel 81 is arranged in the ring of the driving end 612 so that the link mechanism 61 can be driven by the eccentric wheel 81 to move up and down in an axial direction. In this embodiment, the two limiting rods 511 are disposed at the position where the upper cover 111 is close to the opening sipe 113.

The grinding unit 41 comprises two sharpening components 412, and each of the sharpening components 412 is provided with an elongated oblique hole 413. Each of the two elongated oblique holes 413 is correspondingly limited to one respect limiting rod 511 to move. One end of each sharpening component 412 is pivotally connected to the pivot end 611 of the linkage mechanism 61. The two sharpening components 412 are pivotally connected to different pivot points, so that the two sharpening components 412 form a cross arrangement and opposite openings are formed between the two sharpening components to cross a sharpening accommodating space, and the two sharpening components 412 are exposed in the opening slot 113 of the upper cover 111.

Although the second embodiment of the present invention is different from the first embodiment in appearance, its structural and functional essence is the same as that of the first embodiment. The difference between the structure of the second embodiment of the present invention and the previous embodiment is that in the second embodiment, the linkage unit 31 is not provided with an upper fixing seat, and the two limit rods 511 originally provided in the upper fixing seat are set in the upper cover 111. The sharpening components 412 are also correspondingly disposed on the two limit rods by using their elongated oblique holes. Therefore, when the eccentric wheel 81 drives the linkage mechanism 61 to move up and down, the linkage mechanism 61 will drive the two sharpening components 412 to move up and down, and the two sharpening components 412 are also separated from each other when rising up and approaching each other when descending due to the guidance of the two limiting rods 511 and the two elongated oblique holes 413, as shown in FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 to achieve the purpose of grinding the blade. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An electric knife sharpener, comprising: an accommodating unit comprising an upper cover and a base, said upper cover comprising an opening slot; a driving unit comprising a motor and an eccentric wheel, said driving unit being fixed on said base; a linkage unit comprising a linkage mechanism, said linkage mechanism comprising a pivot end and a driving end, and said linkage mechanism being drivable by said eccentric wheel to reciprocate along an axial direction; and a grinding unit comprising two sharpening components, each said sharpening component comprising an elongated oblique hole for the passing of one respective limiting rod of said upper cover, one end of each said sharpening member being pivotally connected to said pivot end of said link mechanism, and said two sharpening members being pivotally connected at different pivot points, so that said two sharpening components are arranged to be crossed and a sharpening accommodating space is formed between said two sharpening components.
 2. The electric knife sharpener as claimed in claim 1, wherein said driving end of said linkage mechanism is provided with a ring, and said eccentric wheel is located in said ring to drive said linkage mechanism to move up and down in a reciprocating motion.
 3. The electric knife sharpener as claimed in claim 2, wherein said two sharpening components are exposed in said opening slot of said upper cover. 